You'd normally expect Nashville's Metro Animal Care and Control to be inundated with stray cats and dogs. You know, the normal pets. But on Thursday, April 23, they were alerted to quite the unexpected guest.
As reported by WKRN, the emu had apparently escaped from her home in Mt. Juliet through an open door latch. The female emu, named Picasso, then made its way out onto the streets of Nashville, where it quickly garnered attention. I certainly don't blame the passersby—I'd certainly be making a ruckus if I saw such an exotic animal, especially walking past me!
And, luckily, it turns out some of those passersby called animal control. They had to specifically engineer a trailer for Picasso's needs. After what I can only assume was a long session of corraling and incitement using treats, they managed to contain her.
Matt Peters, an MACC spokesperson, explained that the owner was cooperative throughout the process. "The owner reached out to us right away. We talked with them. It turned out the latch just gave way on the gate."
As of Saturday, April 25, Picasso has been picked up from her trailer. That's good news, because she was apparently hating her trailer. You'd think she'd be a bit more grateful since they engineered it especially for her!
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The MACC Warned Against General Ownership of an Emu
The MACC has used this whole debacle as a good way of making a pretty good point about pet ownership.
Things can very easily go wrong when you're looking after any exotic pet, especially an emu. Peters advised, "If you're going to adopt... definitely do your research ahead of time. Talk to everybody in your family who's going to be working with it, because taking in a pet is not something you can do part-time."
But, if you're a reader in Tennessee and you really, really want an emu, I have some excellent news to share with you. It's not illegal to own one in the state! But experts definitely warn against it. They cite the sheer amount of maintenance and care as a pretty good reason to avoid owning an emu. Take that as a warning for sure!
